Path to Transcendence

Lily POV

She couldn't help but shake her head. But should she have expected anything different from him?

Julius had once again decided to fool around and make things more stressful than he needed to. At least the crowd had their fun, and to their eyes, Julius's fight seemed the closest in terms of skill level. Most of them did not realize that Julius was horsing around.

Knowing him like she did, he had likely chosen to fight like that because his opponent had an interesting skill he wanted to copy.

To be honest, she had no idea what he was planning anymore. But it was something she was used to. She had quickly learned that she shouldn't associate normal behavior with him. He was just too unpredictable.

When she had caught him blowing himself up again, she had belatedly realized that she wasn't even that mad. It was almost so normal that she forgot about it an hour later.

After Marcus reluctantly shared the details of how he encountered Julius, she was not as surprised as one might think. It was the nature of being around Julius. You sometimes forget to associate him with being a normal human and give him different standards.

So when she heard he was fighting a Tier 5, it was more of a relief than anything else. It meant that he was still alive and remained the same person even after disappearing.

Regardless, she still gave him the silent treatment for a while, but that was more because of general principle than her actually being mad at him. She felt like if she didn't do it, it would only encourage him to continue with his reckless behavior.

Not like that is going to stop him, though, she grumbled internally.

As she watched Julius and his opponent talk after their fight, she received a notification on her communication device. It was again Marcus asking her when she wanted him to meet her.

During his match, Marcus informed her that part of Julius's reward from House Easten had arrived. She didn't know what it was, and House Easten wasn't willing to divulge the reward to her family. She could appreciate this as it showed that they had some measure of loyalty to Julius. At least enough that they weren't afraid of denying House Violet's request. They simply wanted to ensure that people weren't aware of the reward without Julius's permission

She quickly replied to Marcus, stating that she would come by the front gates and grab it from him later. Then, she got up and headed back down to the waiting room, where Julius should be once he left the stadium.

While it was not as bad as it used to be, she still didn't enjoy being around large crowds.

There were just too many emotions and people around. When she was younger, she would have just blocked everything out, regardless of the situation, but she quickly learned that doing that was not good in the long run.

She couldn't just shut everything out if she ever wanted to learn how to control her powers. Moments like these were more beneficial for her than dozens of training sessions.

It also helped that the people in the crowd were mostly in a good mood. Sure, she was able to sense a few sparks of anger throughout the stadium, but for the most part, people were having fun.

In a way, it bled into her own emotions and she couldn't help but feel that same excitement they were experiencing. She knew that if she wanted to, she could fall into that sensation and lose herself in that excitement and joy. Something she had been guilty of doing in her younger days.

Despite that temptation, she maintained control over her emotions and filtered out the crowd's thoughts and emotions like she had been trained to do since she was a little girl.

Among the excitement, she could feel the occasional spite and envy from some of the other students in their section. She understood their feelings, though. After all, Julius was a first-year student already displaying an impressive show of strength for someone so young.

While some of the spectators had no idea of his age, the students had heard the rumors by now.

Some of them made excuses for how he managed to get that strong, stating things like he got special treatment from the Royal Family or other such nonsense. More importantly, the people who were skilled enough on their own realized that Julius wasn't just some propped-up Tier 3. They also likely realized that he had held back in this match, displaying pure raw skill that many others didn't come close to.

The tournament's top contenders were quickly realizing that he was the real deal, a threat to their tournament run, which is why she grinned as she saw some of those same students off in the distance, not taking their eyes off of Julius, even after the match had concluded.

***

Julius POV

He was happily strolling down the hallway alongside Lily. That last fight, while not the most exciting and competitive, had shown him a lot about what he could improve. He always had a much more difficult time with using softer and more gentle techniques.

His style was more about being fast and blowing things up.

Keldon, his opponent though, was the complete opposite. He didn't have the sheer power like Julius had, which forced him to practice his other skills.

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However, it was a mystery why the older boy decided to continue fighting in such a style when it obviously didn't suit his natural talents. He might have been much more effective as a mage or at least using a weapon that might enhance his offensive potential.

Julius could already imagine what kind of menace Keldon might have been if he was just as proficient with a weapon that could threaten his defenses. Hand-to-hand combat seemed a little weird to him. But who was he to judge?

It wasn't like he made rational decisions about doing things he wanted. He did them because he enjoyed them, not because it was the wisest path. Perhaps Keldon was similar and wanted to continue fighting the way he was.

Look at Richard; he had chosen to become a mage even though his entire family was made up of warriors and had the talent to become one as well.

Julius shook his head, although he couldn't help but imagine what kind of force of nature Keldon would become once he figured out a way around his physical limitations.

Still, he had many things he wanted to test tonight, and he believed he might be able to convince Aubrey and Edgar to help him out. He had ways to bribe them if they didn't want to.

He also had Reinera, but she said she had to do something tonight. It involved the same thing she had been doing for her family and why she was able to stay at Goldencrest. But if the others declined, he could ask for her help tomorrow.

He would have asked Gabriel, but the man had been much too busy lately. They hadn't even had the opportunity to spar since he had returned. The man was swamped with preparing the tournament and such.

He shifted his attention back to Lily.

"What's the big surprise?" he asked, playfully bumping her. However, because he was a little too excited, he ended up using more strength than he planned. She threw him a dirty look when she was almost knocked off her feet.

"Sorry," he said while scratching his head, a little embarrassed at his display of lack of control.

She brushed herself off dramatically. "Do you really want to know?" She asked him with a smirk.

He nodded his head aggressively. "Yeah, tell me."

"Well then, we better get there soon," she said with amusement.

"Rude," he muttered, understanding that she had no intention of telling him.

He kept getting more confused as this so-called surprise took them to the school gates. He couldn't help but wonder what kind of surprise was waiting for him there.

However, when he spotted Marcus standing in front of the gates, he got even more bewildered.

What kind of surprise requires Marcus to be here? Isn't he a busy man? He thought to himself.

When they walked up to Marcus, the older man let loose a slight grin and bowed toward Lily.

"Lady Lily, it's nice to see you again so soon," he said politely, turning toward Julius.

"Julius, I see that you are still in one piece more or less," he said with much more casualness.

"What? Were you expecting me not to be?" He asked the man with an affronted expression.

Marcus shrugged and looked away. "I wouldn't be surprised is all."

"I guess rudeness runs in the family," he grumbled.

"What do you mean?" Marcus asked, genuinely confused at his statement.

"You know we're not related, right?" Lily mentioned with a sigh.

"Yeah, but he seems like he is practically family, which is close enough, right?" Julius pointed out that if Marcus's pleased expression was any indication, the man enjoyed that statement very much.

"No, it just means that we both know how you act and have certain expectations for you."

"See, rude."

"Do you want your surprise or not?" She asked exasperatedly.

He immediately put on an innocent expression. There was no time to fool around. "Yes, ma'am."

She looked very pleased by his actions and nodded her head. "Okay, Marcus, show him," she instructed the man.

He swiveled his head to look at Marcus, who was in the middle of pulling something out of his storage ring. What appeared in his hands was a small, beautiful, inscribed white box made of ivory or bone.

The inscriptions were dark blue, and they pulsed gently as Marcus held them out in front of him. Julius slowly reached forward to take one; the weight surprised him, almost making him drop it.

"What is the box made of?" He asked Marcus with an inquisitive stare.

"I don't know, but it is made of some kind of powerful tiered beast material if I had to take a guess."

Julius looked at the box and examined it in his hands. Whatever enchantments were on it, he wasn't able to sense what was inside, even with [Spatial Perception].

For the next few moments, he tried his best to see what was inside, but to no avail.

"Are you going to open it? You do realize that the gift is the thing inside of the box," Lily said to him.

"Hey! Don't rush me. I am taking my time," he rebuked her. "By the way, shouldn't you know what you are surprising me with?" He asked, confused, as he turned toward her.

"I have no idea what is inside," she admitted to him.

"What do you mean?"

"We weren't allowed to open it. The box is enchanted only to be opened with your aura signature," Marcus explained.

"Well, who gave it to you guys to give to me?" He asked.

"House Easten."

"You weren't supposed to tell him yet, Marcus," Lily complained.

"You want him to open a box without knowing who it is from?" Marcus asked doubtfully.

"We know it from them, so it's safe. But now it ruined half of the surprise."

"He still doesn't know what is inside. Plus, it would appear that he is much more interested in the actual box than the object inside," Marcus pointed out.

The man wasn't exactly wrong. The box's construction was quite interesting, and if it really was from House Easten, Rebecca and Richard knew full well that he would find it interesting. He suspected that the box was part of the gift.

Smiling when he saw that Lily was practically exploding with curiosity beside him, he found the keyhole in the enchantments to feed his aura into. Without hesitation, he started to push some aura into it, and right away, he noticed that the box had swallowed it.

The box made an audible clicking noise as the latch was opened. Opening the lid, he was met with two objects lying before him.

One was a tiny, bright white sapling sitting in a glass bottle, and the other was a small chain necklace.

Each looked valuable, but the only issue was that he had no clue what to do with either of them.

He gently poked them with his finger and smiled. It seemed that his reward from that mission had finally arrived, and he had a feeling that he would love them. Well, first he had to figure out what they did.